1.1 When is an ENS required?
The EU legislation requires, as a general principle, that all goods brought into the customs territory of the Community, regardless of their final destination, shall be covered by an Entry Summary Declaration (ENS), which should be lodged at the customs office of first entry, i.e. the first intended port of call within the customs territory of the Community. This means that all cargo, whether or not consigned to the EU, must be declared, including freight remaining on board (FROB). The ENS shall be lodged at the customs office before the goods are brought into the customs territory of the Community; in the case of deep sea containerised traffic the ENS is to be lodged before loading in the foreign load port.

1.2 Who must lodge the ENS?
The EU legislation requires that the ENS „...shall be lodged by the person who brings the goods, or who assumes responsibility for the carriage of the goods into the customs territory of the Community.. This means the operator of the active means of transport on or in which the goods are brought into the customs territory of the Community – “the carrier. - is responsible for the filing of an ENS. In the deep sea container context, this is held to be the ocean carrier that issues bill of lading for the carriage of the goods into the EU. However, in the case of vessel sharing (VSA) or similar contracting arrangements, e.g. slot or space charters, the obligation to file an ENS lies with that carrier who has contracted, and issued a bill of lading, for the carriage of the goods into the EU on the vessel subject to the arrangement. So, each party which issues bill of lading for carriage of goods on the vessel is deemed to be the ocean carrier and must file the ENS for the containers it is having carried on the vessel. For short sea shipping, the same rules normally apply, but in the case of “combined transport” (e.g. a truck carried on a ferry) where the means of transport entering the customs territory of the Community (the ferry) is only transporting another means of transport which, after entry into the customs territory of the Community, will move by itself as an active means of transport (the truck), the obligation to file an ENS lies with the operator of that other active means of transport (the trucking company).The vessel operator must always, however, provide the Arrival Notification (see Q 1.14 and Q. 1.17 below) and where appropriate, the “Diversion Request” (see Section 6 - Diversion below).

1.3 Can other persons lodge the ENSs instead of the carrier?
Yes, but this does not relieve the carrier of the responsibility. In the end it is the carrier that must ensure that an ENS is lodged, and within the prescribed deadlines. Therefore, the ENS may be lodged by a person other than the carrier only with the carrier.s knowledge and consent.

1.4 Must the person lodging the ENS have status as an Authorized Economic Operator (AEO)? Or must it have registered otherwise?
There is no requirement that the person lodging the ENS must be an AEO.
However, the person lodging the ENS (“the declarant”) must have an Economic Operator Registration and Identification (EORI) number (see Section 9 below) that must be included in the ENS. Similarly, if a 3rd party – with its knowledge and consent – files an ENS instead of the ocean carrier, the 3rd party must in its ENS include both its own EORI number and that of the ocean carrier.

1.5 When must the ENS be lodged?
The legislation requires that the ENS for deep-sea containerized shipments must be lodged at least 24 hours before commencement of loading in each foreign load port. Other deadlines apply for other shipping services and other modes of transport (see Part B, Title 5 "Deadlines" of the Guidelines on Import/Entry).

1.6 Why must the ENS be lodged at the first port of entry? The EU legislation applies the principle that the customs office of first entry shall undertake the cargo risk assessment for all shipments, including FROB, carried on a conveyance due to arrive in the EU and initiate any preventive action against identified risk. If the customs office of first entry identifies any risks, it transmits the risk information, to all customs offices in subsequent EU ports declared in the ENS. This transmission of the risk information allows for customs control to take place upon scheduled discharge of goods deemed to be a risk, thus ensuring that legitimate cargo flow can continue uninterrupted (Risk Type C). Exceptionally, the customs office of first entry may take prohibitive action where goods are deemed to cause such a serious threat that immediate intervention is required (Risk Type B). For deep-sea containerized traffic, such immediate, prohibitive action takes the form of a message to the carrier that the goods are not to be loaded on to the vessel for carriage to the customs territory of the Community (Do Not Load or Risk Type A).

1.7 Will the customs office of first entry send the risk results of the risk assessment for FROB cargo to other customs offices?

The ENS must cover all shipments carried on the arriving vessel, including shipments that are to be discharged in subsequent EU ports or remain on board the vessel for carriage out of the EU (FROB cargo). The customs office of first entry must send all “positive risk results” (i.e. information about all shipments that have been identified as constituting a risk) to all subsequent EU ports listed in the ENS. The data element “subsequent ports” is included in Annex 30A CCIP that contains all the data elements that must be included in the ENS. Consequently, all EU ports on a vessel.s itinerary before the vessel heads foreign again must be included in the ENS and, based on that information, the customs office of first entry will be able to forward any positive risk results, including for FROB, to the customs offices in any such subsequent ports.

1.8 Can ENSs be lodged at a customs office different from the first port of entry?
Yes, provided that the customs authorities at that office (so-called customs office of lodgement) and the customs authorities of the office of first entry permit this. The customs office of lodgement must immediately forward the data to the office of first entry. However, this may not be an attractive proposition for ocean carriers for the following reasons: not all Member States allow the customs office of lodgement filing,
the customs office of first entry would still be responsible for the risk assessment, including the issuance of any "Do Not Load" messages, so an ocean carrier would want to be connected to that office in any case and
the ocean carrier will for other reasons already have a close relationship with the customs office of first entry (manifest filing etc.), so establishing a connection to a customs office of lodgement (perhaps in a landlocked country in the EU) solely for the purpose of filing an ENS may not be a resource effective decision.
The list of countries that have implemented the office of lodgement can be found at: ECIP weblink to be created (as also indicated in footnote 5 of the ENS Guidelines)

1.9 Which is the foreign load port when goods are transshipped before being loaded on the vessel that is arriving in the EU?
The ENS filing requirements apply to the main haul vessel, i.e. the vessel that on its itinerary has ports of call in the EU and is carrying cargo into the EU. Goods feedered between, for example, a port in Indonesia to Hong Kong to be loaded on to the main haul vessel destined for the EU would not need to be declared to EU customs by thefeeder company before loading at the Indonesian port – the reporting requirement applies when the goods are to be loaded on to the main haul vessel in Hong Kong. The obligation to file the ENS lies with the ocean carrier issuing the bills of lading for the goods carried on the main haul vessel.

1.10 Must an ENS be lodged for each port of loading?
Yes. The reporting requirements apply to each foreign load port, not just the last foreign port of call before entering the EU. So, in the example above, if the main haul vessel is also to load cargo in e.g. Singapore, then an ENS must be lodged to customs in the intended first port of entry in the EU no later than 24 hours before commencement of loading in Singapore for the containerized shipments that will be brought into the EU on the main haul vessel, including FROB cargo.

1.11 What is the definition of first port of entry and subsequent port for entry?
The first port of entry is the first port in the customs territory of the Community at which the vessel is scheduled to call when coming from a port outside that territory. Subsequent port(s) mean any port in the EU on the vessel.s itinerary that the vessel will call at after its call at the first port in the EU without an intervening call at any port outside the EU. If the vessel calls at any port outside the EU in between EU ports, then the vessel has left the EU and a subsequent arrival at a EU port makes that port the first port of entry, not a subsequent port; a new ENS must be lodged prior to arrival, within the prescribed deadlines, for all of the cargo carried on that vessel.

1.12 What happens if the vessel calls at a different EU port first?
The ENS must always be lodged at the intended first port of call in the EU within the prescribed deadline. Provided that has been done, the vessel may be diverted to a different first port of call. The automatic passing on of risk information (See Q1.6 and 1.7 above) to all declared subsequent ports of call within the EU allows that a vessel may divert to any other declared subsequent port of call (or a non declared port of call in the same Member State as a declared subsequent port of call) without sending a diversion message to customs to the intended first port of call. However, if the actual first port of entry is in a Member State that was not included among the declared subsequent ports of call in the EU, the vessel operator must advise the intended first port of call of the diversion as soon as diversion is planned, by use of a "diversion request" message. The intended port of first entry will advise the actual port of first entry of any risk information (See also Section 6 on Diversion below).

1.13 Is a first EU port of call the first port of entry even if no goods will be discharged there, e.g. a vessel calls only to load containers, or is the first port of entry the first EU port at which containers are to be unloaded?
The ENS must be sent to the customs office of first port of entry whether or not goods are to be discharged in that port. All containers to be loaded on board the vessel for carriage to the EU must be included in the ENS that must be submitted to the customs office in the first port of entry in the EU no later than 24 hours before commencement of loading at each load port, regardless of to where they are consigned, including cargo that will remain on board the vessel (FROB).

1.14 How to handle the situation where the vessel arrives at a first EU port of entry without any goods and without any shipper owned empty containers moved under a transport contract?
If the vessel arrives at a first EU port of entry without any goods and without any shipper owned empty containers moved under a transport contract, it is considered to be an empty means of transport. In such circumstance, no ENS is required (there is no cargo, and no ENS is required for the means of transport itself, in accordance with Article 181c CCIP). Similarly, because carrier reposition empties are not cargo, no ENS would be required for a vessel arriving at an EU port that only transports carrier reposition empties (see Q.1.26 for the difference between shipper-owned and carrier reposition empties).

No Arrival Notification as referred to in Art.184g CCIP is required in such cases (see Q.1.17 and 1.20 below).
1.15 What happens when the vessel arrives at the first port of entry?
Upon arrival in the first port of entry, the vessel operator must submit, for all shipments carried on the arriving vessel, a so-called Arrival Notification, allowing customs to identify all the ENS that were previously lodged for the shipments. For the containers to be discharged in the first port a summary declaration for temporary storage must be lodged by or on behalf of the person presenting the goods to customs. The customs authorities may allow summary declaration for temporary storage to take the form of a manifest and may allow the summary declaration for temporary storage to be merged with the arrival notification

1.16 Must ENSs be lodged at subsequent ports?
No. An ENS, for all of the cargo carried, including cargo remaining on board (FROB), only needs to be lodged with the customs office of the first port of entry.

1.17 Will the ENS replace the manifest filing? If not, what about the relationship between ENS and manifest?
The ENS will not replace the traditional manifest filing, lodged pursuant to nationally prescribed rules, in each discharge port. In addition, it should be noted that according to EU legislation, the summary declaration for temporary storage must include a reference to the ENS. A summary declaration for temporary storage may take the form of the manifest provided that it contains the particulars of such summary declaration, including a reference to any ENS for the goods concerned.

1.18 Is it possible to describe all of the messages and or documents to be submitted by the ocean carrier from the time of 24 hours before commencement of loading until cargo arrival at destination?
- ENS: first, the bill of lading issuing ocean carrier must in each foreign load port, and no later than 24 hours before commencement of loading to the main haul vessel bound for an EU port, submit an ENS for all shipments to be loaded onboard that vessel even if the shipments are to be discharged in a port outside the EU (= FROB) after the vessel has called an EU port.
- Arrival Notification (AN): next, upon arrival at the customs office of first entry (= the first port of call in the EU), the vessel operator must submit an Arrival Notification (AN) (see Q. 1.20 below) covering all shipments on board the arriving vessel regardless of whether the shipments are to be discharged at the first port, at subsequent EU ports on the vessel.s itinerary or at a subsequent port outside the EU (FROB). The AN must either include the MRNs1 for all the shipments carried on the vessel or include the so-called “Entry Key” data elements.2 The vessel operator will have full discretion in choosing between inclusion of the MRNs or of the “Entry Key”; the latter will likely be the prevalent method in the liner shipping industry, as the vessel operator would not necessarily have all the MRNs for all the shipments carried on its vessel.
- Manifest/summary declaration for temporary storage: finally, the bill of lading issuing carrier must - in each EU port where it discharges shipments – submit a manifest according to nationally prescribed rules for the shipments discharged in that particular port. An EU Member State may require that the manifest includes the MRNs, where available, for the shipments discharged in the individual ports. The manifest can take the form of the summary declaration for temporary storage if the ocean carrier is the party presenting the goods to customs. The summary declaration for temporary storage must include the “particulars” necessary to identify the relevant ENS; this could either be the MRNs or the “Entry Key”, but here the party presenting the goods would not necessarily

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